Law Firm ILN-telligence Podcast | Episode 81: Geraldine Spiteri and John Navarro, Acumum Legal & Advisory | Malta
Bill on Bankruptcy: Supreme Court Cases Will Have Wide Impact
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit recently reversed a lower court decision that held that the release of thousands of gallons of oil from a submarine power-transmission cable into Long Island Sound was not...more
On November 26, 2004, the M/T Athos I allided with an abandoned anchor in the Delaware River while attempting to dock in Paulsboro, New Jersey. The nine-ton anchor punctured the vessel’s hull, spilling 264,000 gallons of...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit recently held that its two-question Doiron test for determining whether oilfield services contracts are maritime contracts also applies when evaluating the maritime-contract...more
Does a charterer that agrees to nominate a “safe berth” to load and discharge cargo guarantee the berth’s safety for the vessel? If you are litigating this issue in the U.S. courts within the Second and Third Circuits, the...more
A recent decision of the Federal Court of Canada provides helpful guidance to parties involved in the purchase and sale of a ship. It addresses the issues of whether a former shipowner can be liable for environmental...more
There are few questions more important in the context of oil spill liability than who constitutes a Responsible Party under the U.S.’s Oil Pollution Act (OPA). Recently, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in...more
In an important decision of first impression construing the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (“OPA,” 33 U.S.C. §§2701 et seq.), the Fifth Circuit has held the owner and operator (“Nature’s Way”) of a “dominant mind” tugboat liable...more
On March 29, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit decided an important oil spill cost recovery case: In re Petition of Frescati Shipping Co., Ltd. v. Citgo Asphalt Refining Co., et al. It is a case concerning the...more
The massive public attention focused on the Jones Act in Puerto Rico immediately after Hurricane Maria was eerily analogous to the public spotlight on the law during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (the “Gulf Spill”) in the...more
In two issues of first impression, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals read the complete defense provisions for oil spills under the Oil Pollution Act (“OPA”) to strictly construe the defenses and make them only very narrowly...more
On November 7, in U.S. v. American Commercial Lines, LLC, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the District Court’s ruling that American Commercial Lines (ACL), the owner of a tug boat whose contracted...more
On September 15, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit released a significant Oil Pollution Act (OPA) ruling. The case is Ironshore Specialty Insurance Company v. U.S., et al. The Court of Appeals affirmed the...more
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a responsible party under the federal Oil Pollution Act (OPA) could seek contribution for cleanup costs—even though they may include purely economic damages—from a partially liable...more
On December 12, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit issued a ruling holding that a lower court’s decision dismissing the federal government’s civil claim that the defendants were at fault in connection with a...more
Action Item: The U.S. Coast Guard published a Final Rule increasing limits of liability for vessels, deepwater ports, and onshore facilities under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (“OPA 90”). The raise in liability limits also...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has refused to enforce a judgment against an entity with ties to the judgment debtor, finding that the judgment creditor had not adequately pled an alter ego claim....more